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Tibetans have their own language, which is known as
“bod-yig” in the Tibetan-inhabited areas with the meaning of “Tibetan
language”. Tibetan language belongs to the Tibetan-Burman branch of the
Sino-Tibetan language family. According to geographical divisions, it has three
major local dialects: Weizang, Kang and Amdo. The first two dialects have their
own tones in pronunciation while the latter don’t. Created in the early 7th
century, the Tibetan language, a phonetic system of writing, was based on the
writing system of the ancient Sanskrit language of India. Tibetan language
consists of thirty consonant, four vowels, five inverted letters (for the
renting of foreign words) and the punctuations. Sentences are written from
right to the left. With two major written scripts namely the regular script and
the cursive hand, Tibetan language is widely used in all areas inhabited by
Tibetans. In 641 AD, Songtsen Gampo, a king in southern Tibet, married Wen chen
Konjo of the Tang dynasty, which gave a boost to the development of the Tibetan
culture. From the 10th century to the 16th century, the Tibetan culture
developed dramatically. Throughout the centuries, the Tibetans bring to us not
only the two well-known Buddhist master pieces, the Bka-gyur, and the
Bstan-gyur, but also other great works on cadences, literature, philosophy,
history, geography, arithmetic, calendar, medicine and so on.
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